Dr. Wolfula Reviews John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A.

Finally! Our favorite horror movie reviewer is back! Dr. Wolfula has returned from a brief hiatus to take a look at one of the laziest (and oddest) sequels in all of film history.

John Carpenter’s cult-classic Escape From New York is one of the director’s best works, a thinly-disguised Western that offered both action and satire, as well as introducing audiences to Kurt Russell’s iconic Snake Plissken. A minor commercial hit in 1981, it was a full 15 years before the sequel arrived, but unfortunately, it was simply too preposterous to be a good film. But in keeping with its title, it does provide a couple of hours of entertaining escapism.

The basic plot of Escape From New York saw the island of Manhattan as a maximum-security prison, with Snake sent in to rescue the President whose plane had crashed in the danger zone. The long-awaited sequel sees the character sent into the island of Los Angeles to acquire a MacGuffin that has the power to shut down the world’s electronic technology. It seems strange that the sequel had spent over a decade in development when you consider it has almost exactly the same plot. And what’s up with Pam Grier’s ridiculously deep voice in the film? Yeah, she’s playing a transsexual gang leader but still, take it down a few notches.